A July 23 hearing called by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will include executives from the three largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) in the country.
In a July 16 announcement, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the hearing — “The Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers in Prescription Drug Markets Part III: Transparency and Accountability” — “will examine how PBMs have used their position as middlemen to cement anticompetitive policies which have increased prescription drug costs, hurt independent pharmacies, and harmed patient care.”
Executives from CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx are expected to testify at the hearing. Collectively, the three PBMs “control 80% of the health market,” the announcement said. A recent report from the Federal Trade Commission identified those three PBMs as the largest in the United States.
“Both Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have sounded the alarm over anticompetitive tactics deployed by pharmacy benefit managers and their role in rising drug prices,” Comer said in the announcement. “Information the committee has obtained shows spread pricing and rebates benefit PBMs and have helped the three largest PBMs monopolize the pharmaceutical market.
“It’s clear these self-benefitting practices only serve to help their bottom line rather than patients. PBMs have been allowed to hide in the shadows for far too long. I look forward to the Oversight Committee continuing to work in a bipartisan fashion to shine a light on how these PBMs have undermined community pharmacies, raised prescriptions drug prices, and jeopardized patient care.”
In March 2023, Comer launched the investigation to study PBMs’ role in rising health-care costs.
The July 23 hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern time and will be livestreamed for the public.
